Calvin Rans is an associate professor within the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He also holds an adjunct professorship at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

His research interests lay in developing a mechanistic understanding of the failure and degradation of lightweight aircraft materials and structures. True structural optimization that aims at minimizing weight without sacrificing safety can only be achieved by a thorough understanding of failure and failure progression. With such knowledge, structures can be designed to fail in a slow, progressive, and obvious manner, enabling failures to be detected and repaired long before they become critical to the safety of the aircraft. This design philosophy is known as Damage Tolerant Design and is the motivating driver for Rans' work.

Recently, Rans' work in fatigue and damage tolerance has branched out into the emerging field of Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM), also commonly know as 3D-printing. The design freedom allowed by this manufacturing technique enables structural designs with complexities and topologies that where previously the realm of science fiction. The technology enables new novel weight-optimized structures, but the question remains how do we certify them? In order to answer this, we need to determine the impact of the new manufacturing method on fatigue, degradation, and durability, and link this to the design and optimization procedure.

He has taught Bachelor level course in the field of Solid Mechanics and Composite Materials and Graduate level courses in Fatigue and Damage Tolerance, Lightweight Structures, Forensic Engineering, and Joining Methods.

Best Lecturer TU Delft 2018

During the TU Delft Education Day, Calvin Rans was elected Best Lecturer TU Delft 2018 by a jury of students.
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Best Teacher in the Netherlands

Calvin Rans, Best Lecturer of TU Delft 2018, has been voted the best teacher in the Netherlands for 2019. The jury praised Rans for his ability to inspire his students and for his continual efforts to improve his lectures.
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